This caddying business is not bad work, at least not at the very top of the game. Find yourself working alongside a successful tour pro and you have a chance to bank quite a bit of money.
Even on the senior circuit the prize funds are still pretty healthy, meaning a caddie can make a good living, as seen at this year's Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale.
In 2024, the tournament purse sat at $2.85 million. A year on, the overall purse for The Senior Open remained the same, with winner Padraig Harrington taking home $447,800.
Like we saw with Scottie Scheffler at The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where he received $3.1m for winning the Claret Jug, the winning caddie can expect to take home 10% of that sum.
Where the Senior Open is concerned, that equates to $44,780 for Harrington's caddie Ronan Flood.
This might sound like small fry compared to the whopping $310,000 that Scheffler's caddie, Ted Scott, received for his efforts, but it's still not bad for a week's work.
It's not just Harrington's caddie who has had a lucrative week at the Senior Open.
Players finishing in the top 10 of tournaments are generally expected to award their caddies 7% of their prize money, with 5% going to the rest.
Two players, Justin Leonard and Thomas Bjorn, were tied for second at the tournament. That means they will each earn $233,358, with their caddies taking home 7%, or $16,335.
While that might not be life-changing for some, it’s still a healthy payday for lending their expertize to the players.
